Freedom Folks

Friday, March 03, 2006

The Catholic Church, Charity, and Illegal Immigration

With a debate about immigration policy coming to head in Congress as early as this month, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony is spearheading the Roman Catholic Church's effort to derail legislation that would improve the nation's immigration enforcement capability, and to promote bills that would grant amnesty to illegal immigrants and open our doors to millions of new guest workers. Blurring the important distinction between immigrants and immigration, Cardinal Mahony used his Ash Wednesday sermon to address what he calls "anti-immigrant hysteria" in the United States, and to engage in some hysteria of his own, falsely asserting that a House-passed bill would criminalize routine church activities.
Read the whole piece by FAIR's Ira Mehlman here.

Anti-immigrant hysteria? It's this type of rhetoric that really chaps my ass. I've met plenty of Americans who are concerned about the ILLEGAL immigration situation in this country, and not one has been hysterical. Frustrated? Yes. Angry? You betcha. And rightly so...

The objections of Cardinal Mahoney and other clergy to the House legislation are not limited to this single provision, but rather to immigration enforcement generally. Fundamentally, these religious leaders believe that the right of individuals in other countries to pursue economic opportunities in this country morally outweighs the right of this nation to restrict immigration. Viewed in this light, immigration becomes a form of charity that we, as individuals and as a society, are ethically bound to extend.
Go ahead, Ira, school the cardinal...

The problem is that what Cardinal Mahony and others are promoting is not charity. Charity can only be given of one's own resources. In advocating amnesty for an estimated 10 million to 12 million immigration-law violators, as well as for a massive expansion of legal immigration to the United States, Cardinal Mahony is being charitable with other people's jobs, educational opportunities, health care and other resources.
Thank you!

The American public is justifiably concerned about the economic and national security costs of mass immigration. After decades of broken promises about controlling our borders, Congress and the White House have a moral obligation to protect the interests of millions of working Americans and legal immigrants, whose livelihoods and security have been harmed by the failure to enforce our immigration laws.

And that, my friends, is the bottom line. The federal government is supposed to answer to US -- we, the people -- not to the church, not to big business, and most certainly not to the demands of ILLEGAL aliens. This is a sovereign nation with a government that owes loyalty, service, and respect to its citizenry.

We're waiting.

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